


The S.T.A.R. Labs Job

by liveyourtemptation



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alcoholism, Case Fic, F/F, Grief, Leverage AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-05
Updated: 2017-06-24
Packaged: 2018-11-09 10:24:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11102580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liveyourtemptation/pseuds/liveyourtemptation
Summary: “-and now you want our help.” Cynthia steps forward until she standing next to the men with only the table separating them from Iris. “Why is that.”Iris doesn't have to think about her answer. “Because someone has to pick up where the law fails.”Iris West, former employee of an insurance company, enlists four criminals she used to chase to help her bring down the man who ruined her life.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> this is inspired by [this brilliant gifset](http://lemonyandbeatrice.tumblr.com/post/159805736986).

„What's in it for you?“ Snart asks, leaning back in the office chair, legs crossed on the table.

 

Iris hears the faint echo of the beeping machines, the long tone of the flatline. She shakes the memory without the four criminals she has gathered around her noticing. Only Cynthia cocks her head to the side as if she read a microexpression crossing Iris' face.

 

“Eobard Thawne is a real life super villain if I ever met one,” Iris says, eyes firm on Snart. “Taking him down and making him pay for what he has down is enough for me.”

 

“Always the white knight,” Snart muses.

 

“Look, I can totally get behind taking down Thawne,” Cisco Ramon says, arms crossed defensively over his chest. “Especially if the money is right. But I won't do it if I have to be in the same room as the guy who kidnapped me.”

 

“What's a little kidnapping between friends?” Snart says, shooting Cisco a smirk.

 

“We're not friends,” Cisco spits out.

 

“As far as I'm concerned this is a job like any other,” Diggle says, annoyance knitting his eyebrows together. “Either you take it or leave it.”

 

Cisco and Snart keep glaring at each other but stay silent. Iris sighs internally. She knew that bringing together four of the most dangerous criminals of the States in the same room might cause some problems. But she has it under control. She has to have them under control for her plan to work.

 

“The question I am asking myself,” Cynthia says, leaning against the wall in the back of the room. “Is why is the infallible Iris West suddenly willing to work with the bad guys. You have chased all four of us to the end of the world and back again-”

 

“-and didn't catch any of us, I might add,” Cisco interjects.

 

“-and now you want our help.” Cynthia steps forward until she standing next to the men with only the table separating them from Iris. “Why is that.”

 

Iris doesn't have to think about her answer. “Because someone has to pick up where the law fails.”

 

“And that's you?” Diggle asks, humor in his voice.

 

“That's us,” Iris says and she hopes she's right. She hopes that the spark she has seen in the four of them is really there.

 

“Alright, when do we start?” Snart asks, swinging his legs from the table and standing up.

 

“Tomorrow morning. Same place,” Iris says, looking to the other three for a sign.

 

“I better stock up on snacks,” Cisco says. “This is going to be a long one.”

 

“I'm in,” Diggle says.

 

Cynthia waits until she is alone with Iris. She leans against the window of the abandoned office next to her. The city illuminates the night, making Cynthia's dark eyes sparkle.

 

“Do you remember when you almost got me in Barcelona?” Cynthia asks.

 

“How could I forget,” Iris says, a smile tugging at her lips. “You shot me.”

 

“Well, you shot me first,” Cynthia argues, mirroring her smile.

 

“You stole a Picasso,” Iris says, barely feeling the anger about the crime anymore. It's something she left behind in her past life. Now the act of stealing one painting hardly seems worth the length Iris went to get it back. Though if she is honest with herself the part of her job she had enjoyed the most had always been the chase.

 

“I am sorry about Eddie,” Cynthia says quietly.

 

Something boils up inside of Iris and is gone as quickly as it came. She is mostly tired these days. “Of course you know,” She says. Figures. Iris longs for a cold drink.

 

Cynthia watches her for a quiet moment. Everything shrinks together around Iris until it is only her and Cynthia, the way it always had, even when they had stood at opposite sides of the room, even at opposite sides of the law. Now they are on the same side.

 

“See you tomorrow,” Cynthia says. And with that she is gone, leaving Iris to her thoughts.

 


	2. Chapter 2

Cisco is there before Iris, instantly starting to talk to her about better places they should set up HQ because he doesn't have the place here he needs. Iris suppresses a smile. She hadn't expected anything less. The desk in the room is already occupied by pieces and parts; a mess that seems to have a certain logic to it because Cisco never has to search for anything as he picks up stuff he wants to show her.

 

He is explaining the earpieces he brought for them, his own design of course, as Diggle walks in. He takes in the scene and then sits down at the far end of the desk. Cynthia follows not much later, hair up in a tail and coffee cup in her hand. At last Snart wanders into the room, not sparing them a glance as he throws up his feet on the table. Cisco quickly rescues his equipment from dying a crushed death under Snart's legs and glares at him.

 

“I hope you have a plan,” Snart says to Iris.

 

“I do,” Iris answers. “But first recon.”

 

“I did some digging,” Cisco says. “I made a powerpoint.”

 

Diggle chuckles in his corner.

 

Of course Cisco has already set up the projector. A picture of STAR Labs and Eobard Thawne appears. Someone has drawn red horns and a tail on him. But Iris still feels the same old anger welling up in her.

 

“There isn't anything dirty on him anywhere,” Cisco says, positioning himself in front of the images. “Which is strange for assholes like him. There's always something. Hookers. Or something.”

 

“Are you sure you looked everywhere?” Diggle asks.

 

“Listen, this isn't the first time I looked into Thawne,” Cisco says. “He's clean. At least digitally. Probably has someone who cleans up after him.”

 

“What's your grudge with the guy, anyway?” Cynthia asks. She leans forward in her chair, cradling her chin on one hand. Iris notices the interested gleam in her eyes. She knows how it feels to have that gaze directed at her and it always makes her feel cautious and thrilled at the same time.

 

Cisco doesn't seem to notice it. “He didn't hire me when I applied for a job there,” He fumes.

 

“Maybe because of your record a mile long,” Iris suggests more harshly than she meant to.

 

“Well then, does the rest of your powerpoint consist only of more of your artwork?” Snart asks. “Because if it does I got better things to do.”

 

“Let him finish,” Diggle interjects.

 

Cisco rolls his eyes and clicks on a remote. New pictures appears on the screen. The inside of STAR Labs. Thawne's private house. Another image that looks like schematics for the particle accelerator. Iris has become scarily familiar with them.

 

“Who do you think I am?” Cisco says. “To the untrained eye this might seem like a dead end. But as I've said it's freakishly clean. There are barely any negative articles or comments on him. And if I could find something his lawyers weren't far behind me. There is something up at STAR Labs. Something really bad. And they are trying to cover it up.”

 

“I don't see how that is relevant,” Cynthia says and her voice is not unkind. “We can always just make stuff up. He's leading a multimillion dollar company; there are many ways to trip him up. Destroy his life.”

 

“Steal his funds,” Snart adds.

 

“It matters because people are getting hurt,” Iris says. Everyone looks to her. She stands up and joins Cisco in front of his presentation. “Yes, one goal is to destroy Thawne. But Cisco is right. Thawne is covering up that his great invention, the particle accelerator, is hurting people. You don't find anything because the few people that are affected and realize it get silenced by Thawne's lawyers. He is going to great length that he doesn't have to go to court where the public would see him for who he really is.”

 

“And what's that?” Diggle asks. He leans back in his chair with a calculating look. He is sharper than Iris has expected.

 

“A murderer,” She answers him. Holds his gaze. After a moment Diggle nods.

 

“Okay,” She claps her hands together. “First we need more information. Find an in. Then we are going to expose him and send him to jail.”

 

“Sounds like fun,” Snart says. “I'll sign up for recon duty.”

 

“I'm coming with you,” Diggle says.

 

“You think I can't handle myself?” Snart asks, that smile still on his face but narrowing his eyes.

 

“I'm just afraid that you'll steal anything that isn't nailed down,” Diggle says gruffly, getting to his feet.

 

“Please, I'm a professional,” Snart shoots back.

 

All being said Iris excuses herself and leaves them to do their play. Figure out a way around each other. None of them are team players. But Iris trusts them to keep it together for one job.

 

It's exhausting. Having to pretend this means nothing to her. She avoids the mirror in the elevator. Probably wouldn't even recognize the woman in it. Cynthia had stayed behind, looking at her expectantly as if she wanted to revisit their talk from last night. As if she wanted something. Iris can't figure her out. Cynthia wants many things; most of them valuable and rare. Iris isn't any of those things. Iris isn't going to fool herself into thinking that she presents anything more than the rush of being chased to Cynthia.

 

Iris isn't sure if she could deal with it being more.

 

So she leaves the room. Leaves Cynthia behind with Cisco. She can satisfy her curiosity with him.

 

The bartender has blue eyes and doesn't comment when she orders a double. At least she made it into a bar a block down. She doesn't need her new partners stumbling onto her, asking the wrong questions. Or any for that matter. She doesn't need to get friendly with them. They are working a job. They are getting paid. And that's all. In a few weeks it's going to be over and she'll never has to see them again.

 

She still has work to do today. She got out of helping Cisco and Diggle set up their HQ at one of Cisco's chosen location. But she is supposed to be on comms when Snart and Diggle scoop out Thawne's place.

 

She orders another drink. The bartender smiles at her and she looks down.

 

The thing is she hadn't even drank that much before. It had never been her coping mechanism before. But it had never been this bad before either.

 

She stops after the second drink. She knows that if she drinks more she might start hearing Eddie's voice drifting up from a place deep inside her. A part of her is happy that she still remembers how he sounds. Another part wishes she would finally forget. Get it over with. Rip off the band-aid.

 

But that's not the way it works. She remembers his voice and the way his whole face would light up when he smiled. Sees his eyes in stranger's faces.

 

His uncle hadn't even showed up at the funeral. Back then Iris hadn't understood yet. Hadn't understood the role the particle accelerator played in this. The role of Eddie's job. She had just lost her fiancé. Later she would ask herself why she had to go on living without him. Then she would look to the man who didn't show up at his nephews funeral, to the man Eddie used to work for, to Eobard Thawne.

 

The anger came after the grief. After she tried to confront Eobard. After she tried to get explanations and apologies. After she tried all that and failed.

 

And then she would come up with a plan.

 


End file.
